Los Angeles made her first operational deployment to the Mediterranean Sea in 1977 and was awarded a Meritorious Unit Citation. In 1978, she transferred to the Pacific Fleet and was assigned to Submarine Squadron 7, homeported in Pearl Harbor. She conducted 17 Pacific deployments over the next 32 years and earned eight Meritorious Unit Citations and a Navy Unit Citation. Los Angeles participated in four multinational "Rim of the Pacific" (RIMPAC) exercises, and visited numerous foreign ports in Italy, Republic of the Philippines, Diego Garcia, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Canada and Singapore.[2]

In 1999, while under the command of Mark D. Jenkins, Los Angeles was modified to carry a Dry Deck Shelter (DDS). Her capabilities included undersea warfare, surface warfare, strike warfare, mining operations, special forces delivery, reconnaissance, carrier battle group support and escort, and intelligence collection.[6]

The Los Angeles' 33-year career was one of the longest for a US Navy submarine.